Correction--CDC Not Defunded--Yet

I got ahead of the vote yesterday. The defunding of CDC hasn't been brought to the floor of the House yet. So call your congresscritters and let them know you don't want the plague.

Paul Ryan did respond to Harry Reid's statement of social security and said he was "flabbergasted". Yes, of course, Social Security didn't add to the deficit but a bipartisan reform would "assure the markets." No comment.

Forbes' author Unger posted a nifty piece on their policy blog which outlines when and why corporations and the wealthy adopted a state by state policy like in Michigan and Wisconsin. He said the strategy was adopted shortly after Citizens United. The first prong was to defund unions so that the corporate money would dwarf any ability of unions to counter their political power. This, Rachel Maddow has outlined several times on her show. Unger says that the wealthy and corporations decided that taking care of the unfortunate simply led to an "indulged" country and that the country can not afford it anymore. (Note: the Clinton years left a surplus and projected surpluses for the outyears.)

Unger does write that these people believe that if we are to afford the wars we must fight,we can not coddle the poor and unfortunate. That is why, for instance, if you look at tax proposals in the state of Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin you will see that taxes on the lower classes and seniors are increased but corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy are cut. Unger doesn't support this. He just points out studies that demonstrate the catastrophic effect of these policies on the middle class and the poor. He wonders whether the business climate will really be improved. He ends his blog with a note that societies that opt for such disparities of wealth always fail. This is in Forbes, The Capitalist Tool.

For further reading, you might pick up a copy of Thomas Hartmann's "Unequal Protection--How people Became People--and How you Can Fight Back." He has revised the book to include an analysis of the Citizens United case.

If you want an overview of the war against America, Senator Bernie Sanders' speech is now out in paperback--"The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of our Middle Class". (Nation Books)

Toto, we are not exceptional anymore. Amnesty International has issued statements on various American issues before--the death penalty, Bush's Torture policy, the treatment of Bradley Manning. But I've not seen a systemic blast at the United States as was issued yesterday. Amnesty urged several US States to abandon planned legislation that would drastically restrict workers' rights. "States including Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee have proposed bills severely limiting collective bargaining of trade union members. A similar bill was passed in Wisconsin on Friday."

Amnesty continues," State governors must withdraw support for these measures which, if adopted,would violate international law. The US has an obligation to uphold the rights of American workers--including the specific right to organize and bargain collectively."

The sad thing is that the United States was instrumental in drafting the ILO Conventions and other international standards for labor relations.
Also conventions on basic human rights. Ah, forget it.

A Kaiser poll is out that shows 51% of Americans either want to keep the healthcare bill or expand it.

An AP/ Washington Post poll is out that shows 53% of Americans approve of same sex marriage , while 44% of them are against. This is a dramatic increase from 2004 when only 32% approves.

Henry Waxman went snopping around and found that the Pentagon overpaid Howard Sargeant , a billionaire oilman and Republican donor, $200 million for oil supplies during the Iraq War. And you wonder why we keep going to war. It's a money making machine.

Maybe, this is why NPR was defunded. NPR investigative reporters did a detailed piece on how major corporations, particularly Google, used offshore tax havens to escape American taxes. The reporters estimate that America loses about $60 billion a year. It's an excellent story with nice elements of color.

But if the IRS can not collect corporate taxes,they can audit you if you or your partner had an abortion. Mother Jones did an excellent piece on the recent House bill prohibiting government funds for abortions. The IRS would be required to pursue taxpayers on how they paid for their abortions and answer a whole questionnaire. The article documents this accurately. Remember the adage that government is overhead. Well,I guess the GOP wants to create more of it. Is there not a privacy issue here? Forget it.

President Glenn Beck addressed the nation yesterday about the re-alignment of the world and the crisis in Japan. I worry about him doing this more frequently because his audience--what remains of it--will actually believe he is President. If he does it more frequently, that means Roger Ailes is conditioning his audienece to accept a Mormon for President. One sympathetic to corporate interests. I wonder whether he has anyone in mind.

Charles Koch is the one to watch, not David. David is the doofus brother, I'm convinced. The family are isolationists but Dad founded the John Birch Society to go after domestic enemies. And it seems Charles is still at it. Does anyone remember the DVD "Obsession: Radical islam's War Against the West". This truly horrible DVD was slipped into Sunday papers here in Virginia just prior to the 2008 campaign. It was meant to send a message not to vote for you know who. Funded by Charles. Why I mention it is that there is another little Koch campaign that the Obama Administration is funding the creation of mosques abroad. Totally untrue but go for it. This is another project of the teaparty crowd.

And people criticize President Obama for going to Rio? A trip that has been planned for over a year and had been recommended to anyone interested in American relations with Latin America.